


To Ease Your Troubled Mind

by SlackerEmeritus



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:44:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6981130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SlackerEmeritus/pseuds/SlackerEmeritus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Graves has nightmares about the Locker. Taric notices; they're laned together all the time, how could he not? He just wants to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Ease Your Troubled Mind

"Here."

Graves drew up short as Taric's gauntleted hand thumped against his chest; he took a step back and looked down to identify the unfamiliar flash of colour that caught his eye. He half expected Taric to cast some kind of stupid rock spell.

Taric held a pretty sizeable chunk of precious stone between his fingers. Amethyst, if Graves remembered correctly, judging by the rich purple hue. He'd won a couple here and there in the past when a losing bastard bet his woman's jewels against the pot. He'd never seen a single rock quite so big, though, nor so flawless. He could get a pretty penny for that in some of his old haunts. Rather than take it, however, he pushed Taric's hand away and fixed an irritated look on the gem knight.

"What the hell's this for?" he grumbled. "You're a might early for a birthday present and purple ain't exactly my colour."

"Amethyst," Taric said gently, perhaps deliberately misconstruing the question, "to ward away evil." Graves snorted.

"You'll wanna give it to that card-throwin' con artist," he said, pushing away the offered gift again when Taric pressed it closer. "He'll need it to keep him safe from me. Assuming he doesn't sell it for a quick buck." The smile that Taric gave him was so knowing and sad at the same time that Graves shifted his weight, suddenly uncomfortable, and was too distracted to give the knight another shove.

"It will keep away the nightmares," Taric told him in a tone that made the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Before he could react, the pendant was nestled in his palm – it was so warm he could feel it through his glove – and Taric closed his fingers over it for him. Graves scowled and caught that weird, unearthly blue gaze with his own, tried not to think about how those eyes put his mind of someone else.

"What the hell makes you think I've got nightmares?" he wondered in a low, threatening rumble. The sympathetic look Taric gave him just irritated him more. The silence, however, had him shifting his weight again. He couldn't stand the way Taric seemed to stare right through him.

"It _will_ help," Taric reassured him. Sullen, Graves looked from Taric to the pendant and back again.

"…How's this lousy piece of rock supposed to help?" Taric lightly squeezed his hand so he felt the polished edges of the stone in the folds of his hand.

"Keep it with you when you sleep," he advised. "You needn't do anything more." Graves' almost palpable scepticism elicited a slow smile and a nod. "Really," Taric said, "that's all."

"You're full of it," Graves pronounced. Taric didn't answer; he just let go with one last pat to Graves' clenched fist, then hefted his hammer and strode away.

It wasn't until the soft clank of his footsteps faded that Graves, grudging and uncertain, nevertheless slung the silver chain around his neck and tucked the stone away under his shirt. He could always break the damn thing over Taric's head if it didn't work.

**Author's Note:**

> This pre-dates Taric's rework/update by a long shot. I originally wrote it two years ago.
> 
> I'm really bad at being brave enough to post things places.


End file.
